Knowledgebase

The Backups area provides a basic interface for downloading and storing all or some of the website’s files, databases, forwarders and filters.

This tool may be useful for more experienced users who wish to expedite the backup process.

Full backups

You can use this interface to create a full backup. The full backup will include your /home directory, databases, email forwarders, and filters.

Create a Full Backup

To save a copy of your website to the web server:

1. Click the Download or Generate a Full Web Site Backup button.
2. Select Home Directory from the Backup Destination heading.
3. Enter your email address.
4. Click the Generate Backup button. You will receive an email after the backup is complete.
   • The backup file's creation date appears in the filename (which begins with backup-MM-DD-YYYY). The file will be stored as a tar ball, or compressed data file, with the file extension .tar.gz.

Download a Full Backup

To download a full backup to your computer:

1. Click Download or Generate a Full Web Site Backup.
2. Under Backups Available for Download, select the backup file that you wish to save to your computer.
   • The backup file's creation date appears in the filename (which begins with backup-MM-DD-YYYY). The file will be stored as a tar ball, or compressed data file, with the file extension .tar.gz.

Store a Backup file remotely

You can also use the Full Backup interface to log in to a remote computer via FTP/SCP and store the backup files there.

To remotely store a backup file:

1. Select Remote FTP Server, Remote FTP Server (passive mode transfer), or Secure Copy (SCP) from the Backup Destination menu.
2. Enter the remote server's information in the text boxes that appear when you select the backup destination.
3. Click Generate Backup.

You will receive an email after the process is complete.

Partial Backups

The Backups interface also allows you to store individual pieces of your account.

If you wish to download and store your entire /home directory, your SQL database(s), and your email forwarders and filters, click the appropriate links under the Partial Backups headings. This method will download the backup file(s) to your computer and save them to a specified directory.

Restore the site from the Backups link

This function will restore portions of your site using a backup file on your computer. To begin, choose the part of your site that you wish to restore.

To restore a portion of your site:

1. Click the appropriate Choose File button.
   • For example, if you wish to restore your MySQL database, click Choose File under the Restore a MySQL Database heading.
2. Select the backup file from your computer.
3. Click Upload to restore that portion of your site.

Important information about your backups

Contents of the home directory backup

When you back up your /home directory, the backup includes:

• All of the files that you own.
• Files that you do not own but have access to.

Can I exclude files from a backup?

You can exclude certain files and directories from a backup by placing a configuration file in your /home directory. For more information, read our documentation about how to Exclude Files from Backups.